Let’s look at this vehicle. The 1971 Corvette 454 emerges from a similar year as the Apollo 14 mission, where going to the Moon was a more innocent idea. Yet, unlike the moon, the Corvette stayed grounded to core ideals instilled since manufacturing.
This one in particular is listed for $37,500 on Craigslist. According to the add, the Corvette 454 “Runs and drives excellent very clean in/out.” Furthermore, the seller claims that they “Just pulled it out of the mechanic shop spent over $3000 of repairs.” There’s so much to love about this vehicle. For starters, the color is to die for. There’s a nice “Mille Miglia Red” on top of beige that they allow for the vehicle itself.
As well as a strong engine that would make Formula 1 drivers jealous. It’s an LS5 big block, weighing in with 454 cubic inches of displacement, at a 8:5:1 compression ratio. Out of this, a gross amount of 365 horsepower, therefore produces about 460 pound-feet of torque. If that’s not incredible enough, check out the four-speed Muncie M21 gearbox.
That’s pretty revolutionary, no? The vehicle, for being from 1971, still looks pristine for a Stingray. It’s a convertible, therefore, that would make any electric vehicle owner keel over to take a spin.
The unit itself has a clean title. But how about the history of the Corvette 454?
When you look at the year 1971, it happened to be the start of a sunset on performance models. With unleaded becoming the new normal, plenty of vehicle manufacturers were not about it. So they would try to de-tune their sports cars to run even better than before. It was really a wacky time in the history of Chevy.
When you think about the Corvette 454, there comes to mind gratitude for the general “americana” of vehicles from that era. Gosh, what an amazing time we live in where we can look back and be grateful.